Topic: Education
EDITORIAL – The high cost of low-performing schools
The poor report on Clifton Hunter demonstrates the truism that, beyond an easy-to-discern level of sufficient investment (i.e. safe and comfortable facilities of adequate size), pouring additional resources into a school – whether it be in the form of sparkling buildings or new technologies – does little to improve the amount of learning that takes place within that school.
School bus stop
Today's editorial cartoon.
EDITORIAL – Celebrating our academic champions
Our children’s future success will depend on their ability to compete in a global workforce which is highly skilled, technically proficient and based on continuous learning and improvement.
EDITORIAL – Respect school buses, protect Cayman’s schoolchildren
Road Safety 101: When you see red flashing lights on a school bus, stop your car. There is no excuse not to.
EDITORIAL – A no-compromise commitment to public education
No single student, or clusters of multiple students, should EVER be allowed to disrupt the education of an entire class. Toughness is called for here – “understanding” can come later.
EDITORIAL – A classroom for every child in Cayman
It is nothing short of irresponsible for government to pass a compulsory school attendance law, while effectively denying expatriates entrance to the public education system paid for, in large part, through their taxes and fees.
Will: A California election could catalyze K-12 improvements – and perhaps end the state’s...
Because about two of California’s 277,000 teachers (0.0007 percent) are dismissed each year for unsatisfactory performance, school districts resort to what is called “the dance of the lemons,” shuffling incompetent teachers from one school to another.
Morici: Merging education and labor departments makes sense
Many college graduates land in low-paying dead-end jobs and are saddled with a lifetime of debt when more practical alternatives are available.
School’s out
Today's editorial cartoon
EDITORIAL – School’s out: Slow down and savor the summer
After months of early mornings, homework assignments and classroom lessons, children have the time and space to follow their own interests.
EDITORIAL – When Cayman’s private schools run out of space
When pondering a relocation (particularly to a foreign land), three questions rise to the forefront of every parent’s mind:
Letter: Concerns about children and safety
I have been to see a Councilor in the Ministry of Education about several issues concerning our schoolchildren that are of great concern to me, and I believe others as well.
Morici: Apprenticeships offer an alternative to college
Redirecting federal and state funding from higher education is sorely needed to encourage more of these innovative programs.
Teaching entrepreneurship
In short, the liberal education system is skewed against entrepreneurship, particularly against small startups where sweat equity is the principal financing and where a single skill can be the foundation of a healthy enterprise.
Education
Today's editorial cartoon
EDITORIAL – Cayman government: UCCI’s ‘silent partner’
The education ministry’s, and education minister’s, prolonged snub of UCCI comes during a critical time, not only for the college but for the future of higher education in our country – and just at a moment when it is especially vital for avenues of information to be kept wide open.
Letter: ‘School is in’ at Layman E. Scott Sr. High School
The secondary modern high school opened 50 years ago this year on The Brac and boldly boasts of students excelling in CXC, IGCSE and in other extracurricular activities.
EDITORIAL – Teen pregnancy: A social condition Cayman can’t afford
It’s a rare occasion when the Compass Editorial Board praises declining scores in our high schools. But the reported 44 percent drop in Cayman’s teen pregnancy rate is something to celebrate (albeit, with a fairly large caveat or two).
Unemployment answer
Today's editorial cartoon
EDITORIAL – Two leaders, opposing sides, shared priorities
Premier Alden McLaughlin and Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller may sit on opposite sides of the Legislative Assembly, but in their New Year’s messages, they appeared to be singing from the same hymnal.
Mitchell: How not to improve government schools
The simple reality is that giving more money to government schools is a foolish gesture.
Excellent schools
Today's editorial cartoon
EDITORIAL – Congratulations to Cayman’s spelling champs
Felicitations are apropos for the Cayman Islands’ triumvirate of orthographic nonpareils.
In other words … congratulations to the three winners of the country’s recent spelling bees
EDITORIAL – Envisioning a bright future for Cayman’s schools
Perhaps the boldest aspect of Mr. Scott’s vision for our public schools is that he believes in our public schools. On a subject that is too often characterized by disappointing news and lower expectations, Mr. Scott provides a much-needed voice for hope.
EDITORIAL – Tired of waiting for government? Take the initiative …
We have an abundance of tools, resources, expertise and willingness to take on Cayman’s tough problems. We just have to stop “waiting” and start acting.
Dan Scott: Optimistic on Cayman schools
Dan Scott thinks he can help make Cayman’s public schools attractive. He also believes it can be done fairly quickly.
EDITORIAL – ‘Help Wanted’: A bold vision for a world-class university
The retirement of Roy Bodden from the position of president at the University College of the Cayman Islands presents leaders with the opportunity to write a bold new chapter in the history of higher education in our country.
EDITORIAL – Excellent teachers: The secret to excellent schools
Like a good businessperson, a good teacher desires only a couple of things: First, adequate resources. Second, for government officials to get out of their way, and allow them to flourish in their chosen vocation.
Padlocked school
Today's editorial cartoon
How government plans to spend $1.5 billion
More than 80 percent of the Cayman Islands government’s core budget will be spent in five general areas over the next two years, according to a breakdown of planned public sector spending in 2018 and 2019.
A disconcerting raid on university endowments
Great universities are great because philanthropic generations have borne the cost of sustaining private institutions that seed the nation with excellence. Donors have done this in the expectation that earnings accruing from their investments will be devoted solely to educational purposes, in perpetuity.
Budget targets crime, education
Plans for an influx of 75 new police officers, a $9.6 million cash injection for education and funding for a series of major infrastructure projects were among the key commitments announced in the Cayman Islands government’s budget presentation Friday.
Letter: Supporting our youths’ musical development
For the last four years Cayman Arts Festival have worked with the government schools to identify and support gifted and talented students. Cayman Arts then puts everything possible in place to help the identified students succeed.
Bloomberg: Help low-income students to scale the ivory tower
America’s elite colleges are more selective than ever before. They also remain disproportionately populated by the wealthy – in part because many qualified students from poor backgrounds do not even apply.
EDITORIAL – An ideal leader for Cayman’s Education Council
Education leaders merit “honor roll” recognition for their inspired selection of Ernst & Young’s Dan Scott as chairman of the Cayman Islands government’s Education Council.
Will: Yale offers a tutorial in social descent
The socialization of children, which prepares them to enter the wider world, has been shifted from parents to primary and secondary schools, and now to higher education...
EDITORIAL – A strong start for Cayman’s new ‘schoolmarm’
We usually associate standing ovations with rock stars, Broadway musical performers, and superstar athletes – not with newly minted education ministers. And yet, that is exactly the reception that the Hon. Juliana O’Connor-Connolly received when she addressed 700 schoolteachers and educators on Tuesday.
Back to school
Today's editorial cartoon
Something new in Cayman education? Let’s return to the old
I would venture a guess that Linton Tibbetts, when growing up on the Brac, was not taught the “new” math.
EDITORIAL: ‘Minds Inspired’ sowing the seeds of Cayman’s future
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Author Jack London
We often think of inspiration as something that...
EDITORIAL — Testing our commitment to quality education
Recently released testing results from the Cayman Islands Further Education Centre are troubling enough for us to sound an alarm that should alert –...
7 percent of students pass math exam re-sits
Just 13 out of 189 students achieved a “level 2 pass” in math exam re-sits in 2016, according to results from the Cayman Islands Further Education Centre.
EDITORIAL – Reviewing the campaign and the candidates
The choices that voters make on Wednesday will have substantial consequences for the country and its inhabitants for the next four years and beyond. The campaign may be thought of as a sort of game. The election, on the other hand, is unmistakably real.
EDITORIAL – Accounting for the lack of accountability in Cayman’s schools
Despite pledges and platitudes that emanate from the campaign trail every fourth year or so (the most tired cliché being “the children are our future”), there is no real evidence that Cayman Islands officials – and, by extension, Cayman voters – value education as much as they need to, or ought to.
Education: Candidates seek new solutions to familiar problems
“Every effort must be made to make our educational facilities and teaching staffs second to none. All children deserve and must have a full and complete education.” Those words, from a November 1965 post-election editorial in the old Tradewinds publication about the need to prepare Cayman’s students for the demands of a growing offshore finance center, could just have easily been written in 2017.
Chamber chief: Education is ‘vital focus’
New Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce President Kyle Broadhurst said education will be the “vital focus” of his year-long term at the helm of the islands’ largest business representative organization. Mr. Broadhurst, an attorney, succeeds developer Paul Pearson.
EDITORIAL — New Year’s list: Our editorial agenda for 2017
Obviously, the predominant item on our agenda, at least for the first half of 2017, is the run-up to Election Day, May 27. Once our country’s population emerges from our winter holiday slumber next week, the “real” political campaign season will begin.
Savannah Primary holds math boot camp
Savannah Primary School is taking a pre-emptive strike at helping parents support their kids with their math homework. On Nov. 10, parents of students of Savannah Primary from all year levels, reception to Year 6, were invited to attend a hands-on numeracy strategy night.
Christakis: The Halloween email that spooked Yale
Some called my email tone-deaf or even racist, but it came from a conviction that young people are more capable than we realize and that the growing tendency to cultivate vulnerability in students carries unacknowledged costs.
Math performance blamed for dip in exam results
Cayman saw a slight dip in exam performance nationally in the 2015/16 academic year, with fewer students gaining five “good passes,” including math and English, at the end of their school careers.
EDITORIAL – Cayman education: Divided schools lead to divergent futures
Quality education is the only ticket out of poverty for far too many. It is the passport not only to well-paying jobs but, even more importantly, to a rich, fulfilling life.
Morici: Redefine education to rekindle growth
Americans face daunting challenges beyond the apparent grasp of the principal contenders for president. Rekindling growth and creating enough good-paying jobs will require wholly rethinking how we educate and socialize young people for work. Economic growth since the financial crisis has been a disappointing 2.1 percent, and this year it has slowed to about 1.6 percent.
EDITORIAL – Speaking up for West Bay’s schoolchildren
How can issues as obvious as broken equipment, “debris,” and mold be present in a primary school in a country as wealthy as ours, within a public education system as well-funded as ours? And, for the record, smack in the backyard of Education Minister Tara Rivers?
Raphael: The great British education divide
While the details are not yet clear, [May’s] plan seems to make grammar schools more meritocratic and more open to underprivileged pupils.
EDITORIAL – The most important lesson of the day: Cayman’s schools
When teachers are unhappy, we all should be unhappy – and from the tenor of the remarks in yesterday’s Compass, many teachers are very unhappy, indeed.
Class discipline a key concern for departing school teachers
A pattern of lack of discipline in Cayman’s classrooms, administrative dysfunction and overall job frustration permeates exit interviews from teachers who have left the school system over the last three academic years.
EDITORIAL – Politics and religion: Foreshadowing our upcoming elections
Inside the Lions Centre on Sunday, thousands of residents rallied for the preservation of traditional “family values.” The huge gathering, impressive by any measure, was testimony to the fact that the collective character of the Caymanian people is rooted deeply in conservative religious values and beliefs.
EDITORIAL – We’re inspired by ‘Minds Inspired’
It is with tremendous satisfaction that we celebrate the academic achievements of our brightest, most-talented and hardest-working children.
EDITORIAL – Minister Rivers takes a ‘pass’ on schools report
Education Minister Tara Rivers appears to be missing, or willfully overlooking, the central point of the report her own government commissioned — that Cayman’s government should get out of the business of running schools altogether.
Post: Charter schools under attack
Schools that fail to educate students – be they charter or traditional – should be shuttered.
EDITORIAL – Goodbye, summer Hello, school year
For most children, parents and educators in the Cayman Islands, this weekend is an annual milestone — the final halcyon days of summer before the start of the new school year.
Where does the buck stop on education failures?
Comments from CaymanCompass.com readers
Education issues laid bare
Wonder what percentage of the kids at Clifton Hunter know the definition of the word hubris or the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Better yet, how many of our political leaders know the definition or the story?
EDITORIAL – School woes not just ‘on paper’
We’ve all heard of, “No more pencils, no more books” — but no more paper?
